Reality Check: Does President Trump Deserve Credit For The Booming Stock Market?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The stock market touched another record high this week, hitting 23,000 and continuing a historic run that some are calling a “Trump Bump.”

President Trump is taking credit for the longest sustained market increase since World War II. Candidate Trump once called the surging stock market a “big fat ugly bubble,” but President Trump appears to see it now as a personal victory, posting many tweets touting the record highs:

Since Election Day on November 8, the Stock Market is up more than 25%, unemployment is at a 17 year low & companies are coming back to U.S.

The president even mentioned the Dow Jones industrial average at a White House diplomatic event.

“I just want to make an initial comment that the stock market just hit an all time record high,” the president said, standing beside the Prime Minister of Greece. “It broke, for the first time ever, 23,000, so we’re very happy about that.”

Before you send a thank-you note to the White House for your 401(k), does President Trump deserve the credit?

Almost half of Americans in a CBS News poll say he does — the tracking poll says 48 percent believe the president should get “a lot or some” credit for the stock market, and 52 percent say the president should get “not much or none” of the credit.

It’s true that the market has been great since President Trump was elected — up 4,600 points since Nov. 8, 2016. That’s more than 25 percent.

But the reality is the historic stock market surge began years before President Trump was elected, starting under President Obama.

The market hit a Great Recession low in 2009 at 6,547 on March 9, 2009. By 2013, it took off like a rocket under President Obama, hitting:

15,000 in 2013

16,000 in 2013

17,000 in 2014

18,000 in 2014

19,000 in 2016.

It picked up even more steam after President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.

20,000 on 1/25

21,000 on 3/1

22,000 on 8/2

23,000 on 10/17

The president’s tweet touting the stock market’s record performance is factually accurate, but incomplete. The actual stock market since 2009 had 92 months of an Obama bull market, and 11 months of Trump.